Ok so what is with the undercarriage sagging?

[livininbrazil]

Here you see Molly, a Toulouse goose, in the middle with her two kids. She's got a pretty big keel as we call it. After hatching her kids, it was small and it got bigger as she was off the nest.

I have my theories as to why female geese get keels. One is that they serve as more surface area to cover the eggs in the nest. Also, as Mom gets into water, those feathers get wet and with the added warmth of the extra surface area of the keel would keep the eggs warm and moist.

I like your theories! Except it´s not a keel, it´s a lobe/s. The exhibition-type toulouse do have a keel, but it´s that big breast-bone that sticks out in front, just like the keel of a boat. I can´t quite make out if yours has it or not. And as the lobes get bigger when there´s plenty of food, I also wondered if it´s to keep her going in those weeks when she doesn´t eat much...but then, in some breeds the male has them too...! Pretty geese, by the way...are they chinese crosses?

 

[servpolice]

They look alot like grey steinbachers

 

[servpolice]

The keel is at the breast area in geese.The breed that have lobes are mostly heavy breeds like embdens , American buffs ,Africans and toulouse but in middle and light weight geese females can have it except the chinese !

 

[clmschke]

Yeah, we just nicknamed the lobes the 'keel' as we didn't really see a place online that would give us the appropriate name. There's no real keel on Molly, just the lobes.

The two kids of hers are African/Toulouse crosses: Albus and Adele. We originally got Molly in the hopes that she'd mate with our Toulouse Gander, but Buddy took one look at her and chased her off. Gingi, one of our African Ganders took a shine to her and mated. She's one of our 20 geese: 2 Toulouse, 2 Toulouse/African crosses, 16 Africans.

Here's a photo of our eldest gal, Sissy. She's got a decent lobe for an African. Her first hatching gave us 3 girls and 2 boys. She mated with another African gander, Ron.

 

[livininbrazil]

Yeah, we just nicknamed the lobes the 'keel' as we didn't really see a place online that would give us the appropriate name. There's no real keel on Molly, just the lobes.

The two kids of hers are African/Toulouse crosses: Albus and Adele. We originally got Molly in the hopes that she'd mate with our Toulouse Gander, but Buddy took one look at her and chased her off. Gingi, one of our African Ganders took a shine to her and mated. She's one of our 20 geese: 2 Toulouse, 2 Toulouse/African crosses, 16 Africans.

Here's a photo of our eldest gal, Sissy. She's got a decent lobe for an African. Her first hatching gave us 3 girls and 2 boys. She mated with another African gander, Ron.

Pretty gal...how old is she?

 

[clmschke]

She's just shy of 2 years old. What that photo doesn't show is her bad eye. Her left eye did not form properly during incubation. She can see shadows and movement in that eye, but that's about it. We make sure to keep our food + water buckets in the same spot so she knows where they are by memory. She mated well, brooded 12 eggs, hatched 5. What was interesting to see is how much the ganders took over watching the kids. She had Ron, her mate and the 'uncles' as we call them: Buddy, Sweet Pea and Gingi protecting and minding the babies. I suspect that is because of her lack of sight.

 

[livininbrazil]

She's just shy of 2 years old. What that photo doesn't show is her bad eye. Her left eye did not form properly during incubation. She can see shadows and movement in that eye, but that's about it. We make sure to keep our food + water buckets in the same spot so she knows where they are by memory. She mated well, brooded 12 eggs, hatched 5. What was interesting to see is how much the ganders took over watching the kids. She had Ron, her mate and the 'uncles' as we call them: Buddy, Sweet Pea and Gingi protecting and minding the babies. I suspect that is because of her lack of sight.

Nah...it´s just because ganders are potty about little fluffies!

When you said she´s the oldest, I thought she was getting along a bit, but she´s young yet. Will you breed her again this year?

 

[servpolice]

Thats a nice cross looks alot like my african greylagxembden cross

 

[clmschke]

She's a sweetie, and our favorite goose. I am sure she will have another good clutch of babies come spring. She surprised us with how great her kids came out. I was thinking that the bad eye might be genetic, but it is not. Her two gander sons's are now vying for the alpha male spot from Percy, our big buck gander. He's not in the mood to fight with the rookies, but I think Sissy's boy Ronson. Percy's got himself 6 girls that he does not want to share with other ganders. He's going to have to share whether he likes it or not. It's like a soap opera out there sometimes!

 

[servpolice]

Haha sounds busy there ! ive same thing with my flock of whos going to be boss of who